


Fly Away

by Reily96



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, F/M, Family Issues, Fate & Destiny, Fluff and Humor, Humor, IVE SPENT YEARS ON THIS I KNOW WHAT IM DOING DAMMIT, Lots of intertwined stories, Love Triangles, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Lives, Rating May Change, Reincarnation, Sexual Tension, Steampunk Aesthetic, The Triforce, Violence, designed this to be a very long epic adventure story, everything is meticulously planned out here, if you couldn't guess Itaav is Vaati btw, like this is supposed to be my MAGNUM OPUS of fanfics, sheltered female lead, the pinnacle of everything Zelda related I have done, the stupid name is in fact addressed later, thus why there's a bit of everything, to be continued here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2018-12-31 07:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12127872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reily96/pseuds/Reily96
Summary: In an alternate universe following the adult timeline, instead of flooding Hyrule and leaving the masses to fend for themselves, the Goddesses give the Hyrulean populace notice of the flood. The response of the populace? Build a ship large enough to carry the nation to their salvation. Centuries later, the large nation ship known as the Pride of the Goddesses still sails in the Great Sea. But three teen-aged outliers of the Pride wanted an adventure: Link wanted a comfortable life off of the ship; Itaav wished to take his flying machine to the Palace of Winds; and the Princess Zelda wanted to know about the lives of her people. Their dreams of adventure, however, are granted when the Gerudo nation ship, the Sea Naga attacks, setting off a series of events that tie the fates of these teens and the Gerudo leaders against a greater evil. As they adventure from island to island to save the world goes on, Zelda, Link, and Itaav will learn about their relationships with each other, and the places in their fates.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yo. The name's Reily. I was on FFN, and I suppose I still am. But I'm making the move here. Don't got the patience to cross post and I'd like to grow my audience a bit, yeah? Welcome to Fly Away, the biggest Zelda fanfiction project I have ever done. It is filled with much love and adoration for everything Zelda. I'll be uploading the first two chapters today, and from then on I'll be doing a slow trickle every week or so until we catch up to the full thirty it is currently at on FFN. It is my hope you can enjoy this massive project of mine, as I KEEP SECRETS AND FINALS PAIRINGS FROM YOU and snicker to myself as I keep you all guessing. With that, here's the... prologue, I guess. I'll upload chapter 2 later.

From the journal of Buckfee Sallas:

 

_It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly a year since that fateful day… the day the goddesses warned us of their plan to flood Hyrule. Heck, it’s hard to believe that the goddesses said that at all. But they did. Nobody would have believed it if they hadn’t come down themselves._

_I still don’t quite remember them exactly. I just remember they were terribly beautiful – unreal, really. Nobody, except the sages, could look at them directly for very long. Their words of apocalypse all had us frozen in fear. The evil that the Hero of Time had sealed would break loose, and in order to stop it the goddesses would flood everything. They told us the Hero would not return and in order for us all to be saved, we would have to begin planning a means of survival. They would flood us in one hundred years._

_That fateful day marks the first day of the plans for_ The Pride of the Goddess. _Personally I think_ The Pride of Buckfee Sallas _is a much better name for it. It’s my child, after all. Well, one of them anyways. Hope my wife doesn’t read this…_

_Construction still hasn’t begun on it. Me and my assistant engineers are still working out the exact blueprints for it. It’s going to be an enormous ship, a floating country! The size will be unbelievable, so much so that I’m not sure we can get it done in the time the goddess allotted for us. Yes, a century is very long but for something this huge. To our knowledge, the other races will be joining us as well until we can discuss the matter with them._

_***_

_The blueprints have finally been finished. We’re going to begin production on ship as soon as possible._

_The Zoras declined our offer, saying they were people of the sea. They could survive the flood. I wonder…_

_The Gorons accepted our offer. They’re helping too, which is immensely useful. Their skills in metal craft and forging will cut down the production time for_ The Pride _. Even so, I still wonder about the time._

_We could never find a trace of the Kokiri, whatever they are. The king insisted on inviting them, but I’d never heard of them until then. Needless to say, they either don’t exist and are a bunch of legends, or want nothing to do with us. The actual Deku people, however, jumped at the offer. They will be joining us, and supplying us with parts that their many connections allow them to get. Heh, who would’ve thought those outrageous little merchants would come in handy._

_Apparently, the king even invited the Gerudo. Much too nice for his own good, I think. But it doesn’t matter. In their usual fashion, the Gerudo declined with utter ferocity, saying that they’d plan their own form of survival._

_I don’t particularly mind, because that means my enormously huge baby won’t have to be as enormously huge as I first thought._

_There’ll be the central ship. That will have the inner wall. The inner wall will hold those of high class and royalty. The king wasn’t fond of this at first, but all the fancy nobles outnumbered him on that vote. Whatever. They get their privacy. So do the civilians. There’s the outer wall for that one. That’s where all the civilians will live and where the commerce will take place and all that. Then there are the outer ships. All connected to main ship by massive bridges and corridors, they’ll each have an individual purpose. There will be the agricultural ship. That’s where we’ll grow trees for lumber and farm for crops. Then the livestock ship. That one’s easy enough to guess. There are two more ships, the scholar ship and what we’ve come to dub as the “Goron Feeding Ground.” I may have designed that particular ship but I have no idea what it’s really for. The gorons were very picky when they said that area was exclusive for them. I think that means they may stick dodongos in there. I don’t really care much so long as the beasts don’t get loose in other parts of my ship. That would be disastrous. But I understand why they need them. How else would they keep their food supply if they didn’t have the dodongo to produce rock for them?_

_Still, the power source for this concerns me. It’s such a massive ship… and yes, I have masts designed for it, but wind power is the least of our worries. A salt water steam engine is just… impossible! Or rather, it’s possible, but short lived. The salt would corrode the engines within years; we wouldn’t have the supplies necessary for constant replacement of them, even with the Gorons. What about storms and hurricanes? And on days with no wind, how will we move? I have no idea._

***

 

_The power problem is now the least of my worries, thank the goddesses. Another amazing thing happened. Something I thought I would never dream of seeing… The Great Fairies came and offered us their help in exchange for their own kind to live aboard our ship! I’ve no idea what fairies would need to worry about or their housing… but they said our current plans were adequate! Needless to say, it’s amazing! The Great Fairies are our power source! We have engines now, engines that don’t need salt water steam! Already we’re having engineers train in magical arts to better understand the workings behind our new power source!_

_But it was bittersweet. As soon as the Great Fairies and their kin arrived, the Great Fairies passed. Our power source is literally them. They have trapped themselves within crystals, never to come out again, in order so that we may all live. They may not be truly dead, but they are not truly living either._

_I must make sure their sacrifices do not go in vain._

_***_

_It’s been so long since we started_ The Pride of the Goddesses _. I am old now… and I knew I would never see its completion. Still, I wish I could. Alas, I must leave it up to my children and their children’s children and the many generations to come. No doubt the ship will be glorious when that day comes. Any deluge the goddesses may send will pale in comparison to the fruits of our labor, our means of survival._

_But I wonder… When land comes again, will we continue to sail the seas in_ The Pride _, or will we go back to land? In fact, who’s to say the goddesses are wiping out the whole world? Perhaps just Hyrule. Again, questions I will not live to see the answer to. But fun to think about._

_Nonetheless, I leave these words to my descendants:_

_Live. Do what you must to survive, but never forget to_ live _. Chase your dreams, no matter what they may be or no matter what others may say. Don’t be afraid to come up with crazy ideas, because more often than not, those crazy ideas will get you somewhere._

_Just make sure it doesn’t land you in the gaol!_

_Ah yes… this will be my last entry. I know it. And I’m glad I did it with a hearty laugh!_

_May your futures be bright, wherever_ The Pride _may take you!_

* * *

 

 “Itaav? Itaav, where are you?”

A small boy writhed in his cramped bunk. When he heard his name called again, he sat up and bumped his head on the top bunk. Itaav Sallas cussed as he rubbed his head through his purple hair. He hated this bunk. He hated this room. Heck, he just hated being below deck. It was always so tight and cramped. And this part of the ship barracks was no exception. In the orphan quarters it was two bunks per each little room. But then again, he supposed it was better than having live parents. Then you slept in an even tighter spot cramped in between them.

Briefly, he wondered how the people in the inner wall slept. Probably not like this.

“Itaav!”

“I’m going!” He shouted back, immediately waking up his neighbor in the top bunk. He didn’t really care. He quickly put on his boots and a jacket before stomping out the door. Below deck, he had no idea what time it was, but he had an idea it was probably obscenely early in the morning.

He went down the hall, ignoring opening doors and people scolding the little kid for waking them up. He turned a corner, to see where the source of the voice was. It was the foreman, and he had his hand on the shoulder of a little blond boy. The kid was his own age, maybe a year or two younger, and he was definitely a recent addition to the orphan barracks. He had that sad look about him with his eyes plastered to the floor.

“There you are Itaav.” Said the foreman satisfactorily.

The pale boy just grumbled something rude in response. He was just staring at the new addition. He had no idea why… but he didn’t like him. Nope. Not at all.

“Itaav,” the foreman went on, “This is Link Dollet. He just lost his parents in the hurricane last week. They got caught in a weak barrier and now… Well, I figured since you’re the closet in age to him, you two might make good friends. I was hoping you might be able to show him the ropes, that this place ain’t so bad.”

It all went in one ear and out the other. Itaav did not like this kid, this Link. The kid hadn’t spoken one word but Itaav got sick to his stomach looking at this… _Pathetic worm._ His mind paused for a moment, wondering where _that_ came from. He’d certainly never called anyone a worm before. Pathetic, yes, worm, no. Weird.

“So is that all right with you, Itaav?” The foreman asked, seemingly not for the first time.

The older boy looked up at the foreman, then back at Link. The blond boy seemed to have gotten a little courage and taken a peek at him. Blue eyes briefly made contact with his own red, and Itaav felt that indescribable sense of loathing return.

So he kicked Link in the shin and hauled ass out of there before the foreman could catch him, giggling uncontrollably at the sound of the man’s shouting and Link’s crying.


	2. Just Another Day on the Pride

The horn blared throughout the residential area of the outer wall. Link groaned in his bed, sincerely wishing that there was another more subtle way to begin the work day. But there wasn’t. So he sat up, ignoring the rest of the horn’s blares for the more stubborn sleepers. He was glad that at the age of 15 he was allowed his own teeny apartment. For the past two years he hadn’t needed to worry about someone tripping over him to get their stuff for their own job, which was great. And Link’s teeny apartment had just what he needed. A bed, a small desk for who knew what, a dresser, and a small closet. He used the closet mostly to hold his work supplies more than fancy clothing. He actually didn’t have any fancy clothing.

Scalers weren’t that high ranked…

Not like Magic Engineers.

He yawned. He got up and put on a fresh tunic and pants for the day. Then he reached under his bed and pulled out his walking boots before going to the closet and picking up his pack and machete. As soon as he left his apartment and went down to his area’s mess hall, straight to the Harvest Deck it was. He hated Harvest Deck duty, especially at this time of year, but he drew the lot for it. Oh well.

Letting out another weary yawn, he exited his apartment and joined the small line forming down the stairs. Some people were heading off to the washrooms. Link never bothered to go in the mornings because Scaling wasn’t the type of job you bathed in the morning for. Occasionally on really sleepy days, though, he’d go just to splash some cold water on his face to wake up. But today wasn’t one of those days.

The mess hall always seemed to be crowded, which was appropriate. Back in the orphan barracks he remembered hearing “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” more times than he cared to count. As normal, he got in line with a tray, absently moving as the line went on. Then he got his tray-full and went to his normal table.

Just a normal day.

“Link! Link!”

Different. He looked up from his batch of eggs to see Itaav running towards him, papers in hand and goggles still firmly clamped over his eyes. From the grimy look on him, he seemed to have been working quite a bit.

“Itaav? What are you doing here? You’re an Engineer, you work on the upper decks.” Link asked as his friend slid to a halt and sat next to him.

“Pfft, so? I can do whatever I want; it’s not like they can get rid of me. I’m a genius.” Said Itaav proudly. Then he shoved the papers he was holding right into Link’s face. “And this only proves that I’m more of genius than I thought I was!”

The blond waved the papers out of his face. “And what’s making you a genius this time?” He asked, slightly amused. Itaav was very… energetic when it came to breakthroughs with anything. But when something had him this hyped up, it meant it had more to do with his flying machine than anything else. To Link’s surprise, however, it wasn’t the flying machine this time… but the reasoning behind it.

Itaav’s grin became very wide as he put the papers on the table before them, rearranging them this way and that until a map of the world lay before them. There was the Great Sea and then the Great Continent… Link recognized lines in red ink mark the route _The Pride of the Goddesses_ took to and fro both the Sea and Continent. Then in blue there were other lines, lines that Link didn’t recognize. The purple haired Engineer pointed to the blue lines. “I managed to figure out the flight patterns for the Palace of Winds! If my calculations are correct – and they are – it should fly right over us this afternoon!”

Link just stared blankly at the chart and then at his friend. “How do you find the time to do all this?” He asked perplexedly.

“I dunno. It just came to me as I was working on the _Helmaroc_ , and I just did it last night.” Said Itaav with a shrug. But his big grin remained.

Working on the _Helmaroc_ , though. It certainly explained why Itaav looked as if he worked triple shifts. That was what Itaav had decided to name his in-the-works flying machine. When it was finished, he wanted to take off to find the Palace of the Winds. It was Itaav’s life-long dream so long as Link could remember. He couldn’t understand why… He could understand wanting to get off the ship, yes, but to the Palace of the Winds? Who knew what was up there. Monsters, a lost civilization or maybe… absolutely nothing. Whatever the case, Link didn’t see the appeal. Seeing the eerie thing fly over _The Pride_ was more than enough for him. Because while the Palace may have fascinated Itaav, it just plain creeped the hell out of Link.

Then the Scaler paused in his thoughts. “Wait… Didn’t you have a date with Maple last night?” The younger teen asked.

The engineer’s smile dropped and went to one that simply said, “oh crap.” Itaav sat down and flipped the goggles off of his eyes. “Link… If I’m found dead and castrated, hanging from a rope on the main-royal yard… Well, I think you’ll know who did it…”

Link just rolled his eyes. He forgot about her. Again. For a guy who was a magnet for women he really couldn’t stay in a relationship with one. He either forgot about arrangements he’d made with them or forgot their names, and it led to all sorts of trouble. His latest girlfriend was a young woman named Maple and Maple… well, was demanding to say the least. Much like Itaav, she was also a Magic Engineer with strong magical abilities. Unfortunately, given her already vain and headstrong nature, being stood up by Itaav couldn’t mean anything good. She wasn’t above threatening people with her talents, and just because she and Itaav had a thing going on didn’t make him safe from her wrath. If anything, that made him more susceptible to it.

“I told you she was a bad idea.” Link warned, taking a mouthful of eggs from his plate.

“She came onto _me_ ,” said Itaav defensively.

“Yeah,” said his friend with a mouthful of egg, “And your _dick_ made decisions for you.”

“Hey, now that was uncalled for!” Said the engineer, slightly offended. “Besides… I haven’t slept with her.”

“Yeah, sure you haven’t.” Link said sarcastically.

“It’s true. I would’ve admitted if I slept with her!”

Link finally laughed. “I’m just pulling your leg. I believe you. And seeing how you might die in a few hours, I think it’s good you didn’t sleep with her. Could you imagine what she would do to you if you had and still stood her up like that?”

Itaav grimaced. “No, I didn’t imagine it… but I certainly have a lovely mental picture now…”

It was Link’s turn to grin. But then he noticed one of the clocks on the wall and panicked. “Oh shi- I’m late!”

Itaav looked from his friend to the clock and cringed. “Egh, sorry about that. My fault.”

But Link wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t even bother to chew the rest of his breakfast. The Scaler just swallowed it down, picked up his stuff and headed out the door. He was late! So, so late! And everybody on the bridge to the Harvest Deck was going so damned slow! He ended up having to push and shove most of his way through the cramped bridge, if bridge was really what it should be called. It was more of a fancy outdoor hallway with big windows simply there to look out at the sea.

Ignoring the protests and scolding of those he passed, he managed to make it to the Harvest Deck just on time. Nearly out of breath, he pushed on forward until he made it to his station for the day.

A bright yellow fairy came to meet him as he slowed down to catch his breath. “Link! What kept you, you were nearly late! The boss would’ve killed you if you came _late_!” The fairy snapped irately.

“Sorry… Tatl,” he said in between pants. He was now at a stop, hunched over with hands on his knees to keep from falling over. “Itaav… kept me.”

He could just make out the little silhouette of the fairy girl crossing her arms. “That guy’s a lot of trouble. I don’t know why you hang out with him… Didn’t you used to hate each other, anyway?”

“Well we don’t hate each other now.” Link said as he finally stood up straight and cracked his neck. “But we’ve got work to do, Tatl. Tell’em to get the station ready.”

The fairy grumbled something and then flitted on ahead to the Scaler stations by the edge of the hull. Link took the time to get properly ready. If anything was amiss, he had to report it and get new supplies before he did his run. He made sure his machete was securely sheathed in the shoulder scabbard, his work gloves didn’t have any holes, his harness vest and helmet were fitted right, and his big canvas apron hadn’t dissolved in thickness. And his magnetic boots were in his pack. All right.

He went over to the station where Tatl waited for him. The station he had today was being run by Ralph. That was fine with Link. Ralph was an okay guy and took the Scaler job seriously.

“All right, all set here.” Ralph said as he hitched the safety tethers on Link’s harness vest and pulled, making sure none of hitches came loose. “Ready, Link?”

“Just let me get the magnets on.” He said as he slipped off his normal boots and reached into his pack for his work boots. He didn’t like to wear the work boots anywhere that wasn’t the hull, as they could be tricky on… well, just about anywhere on the ship. It was a huge, floating hunk of metal after all. Boots tied tight around his feet, he put the goggles over his eyes and gave the thumb’s up to Tatl and Ralph. “Down I go. And Ralph, if Nayru walks by while I’m still down there, please don’t make muscles at her.”

“Ah, shut up and get down there, ya goof.” Ralph scowled.

Link just smirked before hopping over the edge of the ship. He let himself fall a few feet before inching his boots towards the hull. Like lightning the magnetized soles of the boots slammed on the metal of the hull. Since the ship was moving as it always was, the wind that wasn’t being caught by sails was being caught by his face. Annoying blond strands that slipped form under his helmet whipped around his face, but his goggles were on, so he didn’t need to worry about anything getting in his eyes. Just the itchiness that was bound to occur on his face.

Tatl flitted down to Link and he gave her another thumb’s up. “All good here! Tell him to tighten the rope!” He shouted through the wind. The fairy bobbed up and down before heading back up. It was still beyond Link how fairies could stand to fly against such wind. They weren’t as fragile as they looked, he supposed.

The rope tightened, and now Link didn’t need to worry about his boots slipping and failing him as he took care of this area of the hull. He sighed as he caught sight of some roots trailing down from windows that were supposed to be closed and from the excess junk that people didn’t realize stuck to the hull. He took out his machete and began to cut everything that shouldn’t be on the hull off, while at the same time relaying orders to Tatl about whether or not Ralph should tighten or loosen the rope to allow him more liberty in certain areas of the hull.

Just another day scaling _The Pride of the Goddesses_.

* * *

 

Since Link had gone off to his job, Itaav figured he may as well get to his own job. As soon as he got back to his own apartment and cleaned up of course. He was working on sail designs today, and he had a feeling that his co-workers may not like the smell of sweat, salt, and the other various dirts and grimes that came with working on the _Helmaroc_ for long periods of time. 

It was almost finished now, his beloved _Helmaroc_. It’s just too bad it wasn’t finished today. If it was, he’d be able to sore up to the Palace of Winds! It was a place that had always caught his attention. A humungous castle floating carelessly in the sky, with those rotors and propellers guiding it through its seemingly never ending course… What powered it? How long had it been afloat and why hadn’t it stopped? Did anyone still live up there or was it abandoned or who knows what? Other people were content just to leave those questions be but not Itaav. He would get up there with his _Helmaroc_ when he was finished and figure it all out! Heck, if it was able to support extra weight, he might bring Link along with him! His friend tried to hide it but he knew Link was just as tired of this rust bucket _Pride_ as much as him.

_But I’m not getting off yet_ … He thought to himself rather disappointedly. Itaav was still on _The Pride_ and he would be for a while yet. But at least, his job wasn’t terrible.

Sufficiently cleaned up and donning fresh clothes, he got on the walkways to the upper decks. Unlike the lower decks, they weren’t particularly crowded. Enough to be annoying, but one could easily just walk around a person going too slow. The reason for the lack of massive crowding was mostly because Above-Deck Engineers were harder to find than the standard Engineer. There were still a good chunk of them, though, and those that didn’t live up the expectations of an Above-Decker were often demoted to normal Engineer. But for people like Itaav, who were considered geniuses, were skilled in magic, and didn’t do well in tight, enclosed spaces for very long, they were Above-Deck. And generally Above-Deckers were considered a higher class of worker than others – meaning bigger apartment sizes, higher pay (which he normally spent on the _Helmaroc_ ), more vacation time, and so on and so forth.

Even though it was his mission in life to get off the metal deathtrap called _The Pride_ , Itaav liked being an Above-Deck Engineer, and not because of the perks. Well, maybe because of the perks but more because a lot of it was sail and hull design (not that much could be done to the hull when they were on the sea), both drawing and the construction of it, and dealing with the Fairy Crystals. A good chunk of it meant being outside, which Itaav liked. Because being outside was better than being on the cramped inside. This was another one of the reasons why Itaav wanted off _The Pride_. It was always so crowded and crammed full of people. Personal space was like a myth; there was limited freedom when wandering around, and you always had to work, work, work in this super cramped place. It drove him nuts.

… Well, more than usual, anyway.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, now that he’d come to today’s workplace, he paused in front of the door. Just as quickly as he’d been reminded, he’d forgotten.

Maple could be behind that door. He could be working with her today.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, was the unfortunate saying that popped into Itaav head. Reluctantly, he opened the door and peeked inside.

Then he opened it completely and let out a sigh of relief. No Maple.

“Itaav, there you are! You’re late!” Said the Head Above-Deck Engineer. He didn’t look very happy.

And the teenager didn’t let it bother him at all. “What’s your point?”

His boss gritted his teeth. “You’re not supposed to be late. If you were supposed to be late, it wouldn’t be a bad thing that you _are_ late.”

Itaav rolled his eyes and went to his empty sketch table in corner, all the while saying, “Yeah, what are you going to do? Throw me overboard? You guys can’t do anything without me around.”

His superior’s face turned four different shades of red before settling on a lovely shade of ketchup red. “I am your supervisor! You don’t talk to me like that just because… just because you’re Buckfee Sallas’s descendant!”

“I’m not talking to you like this because I’ve got a ‘proud lineage.’ I’m talking to you like this because what I said is true. Don’t try and deny that everybody says you haven’t had this much genius on the ship since it was made.” Said Itaav nonchalantly. As he said it, he had a ruler in hand and was already sketching a sail design as easily if he wasn’t having a conversation at all.

His two co-workers in the cramped room looked from their boss to their younger colleague. They had both betted on who would win this argument; a past time of theirs. But in order to keep up appearances so their pay wouldn’t get docked, they made sure they looked fearful.

If possible, the HA-DE’s face went redder. “Arrogant little-”

Before he could finish that sentence, Itaav put the finishing touches on the blueprint he’d made and held it up. “How’s this look?”

Giving him a deathly glare, his boss reluctantly looked from the teen to the blueprint. As quickly as his face had turned an impossible shade of red, it turned a dainty shade of pink.

It was a brand new sail design for the emergency sails. Complete with some of the basic places they could go and an almost completely automated set up. And Itaav had done it in less than five minutes. As if he had saved it for a moment like this.

Which he had. On particularly snarky days, Itaav always had an ingenious design up his sleeve so his pay wouldn’t get docked. He had several other designs locked in his cranium just waiting to see the light of day just like this one. On a normal day when he didn’t sass anyone, he just improved on current designs rather than introduce brand new ones like these. Keep the trump cards to himself until he really needed them, was his own opinion.

“Well?” Itaav asked. “What do you think?”

His superior just looked away from him and grumbled something under his breath before angrily heading out the door. When that door was slammed shut, Itaav’s co-workers passed the money around, the winner giving his younger colleague a thumb’s up.

The purple haired teen just smirked and put his blueprint aside to begin work on another. Trump card of the day, he went about what he normally did for the next few hours, occasionally stepping outside just to stretch his legs or get some water. As it neared noon, he thought of taking his lunch break. The thought quickly left his mind when he heard,

“Where is he?! Where is that _bastard_ , Itaav Sallas!?”

“I think someone’s looking for you?” Commented his frightened co-worker.

Desperately, he looked around for some place to hide. He hated _The Pride_ now more than ever for its cramped spaces and lack of hiding places. With no place else to go, he crawled under the space in his drawing desk. “I’m not here!” He hissed to his colleagues.

The door burst open.

“Where is he? I know he’s in here!” Shouted a very upset Maple.

“Itaav?” He heard one of his co-workers say. “Haven’t seen him all day. Have you checked-”

Maple wasn’t listening apparently. She just went around to his desk and pulled out Itaav by his belt. He yelped helplessly and he tried to crawl back under the desk, but Maple had a surprising amount of upper body strength for a girl. Resistance was futile. She dragged him up and outside of the room, only to continue dragging him out until they were in one of the rare shaded and secluded places of the upper decks. Well, at least she wasn’t say anything horrible about him in public.

“Where were you last night?” She asked harshly.

“Listen, I’m sorry, I forgot-”

“Yes, I know you _forgot_! I’m asking where you were!”

He bit his lip, wishing he could run away. He could always try, but Itaav knew that Maple would be able to catch him easily. She was very good at paralysis hexes, and he could see her very liberally using one on him. “I got caught up in something…”

“Caught up in what, exactly? What is more important than your girlfriend?!” Maple snapped.

He twiddled his fingers and avoided looking at her. _You don’t want me to answer that._ “About that, listen… this whole thing’s kind of one-sided and-”

“ _What?!_ ”

“Don’t get me wrong!” He added quickly, “I mean, I do like you but… It’s just… There are other things on my mind, so…” He was pretty sure saying something along the lines of ‘I’m not looking for anything serious’ or ‘My airship is first on my priorities list’ were very bad answers. Luckily, he didn’t have to choose one because Maple figured it out.

“Are you… breaking up… with _me_?” She asked incredulously.

Edging out towards the nearest escape route, Itaav said anxiously, “It depends… Will you kill me if I say yes?”

The girl’s hands balled into fists but she did nothing. Instead she just growled out, “And to think I considered sleeping with you,” before marching away.

Itaav let out a sigh of relief, glad he wasn’t the one running away. But her last words registered in his brains. _Damn. Too late to say I take it back, I guess…_

But before he could ponder that any further, the ship’s alarm rang out in its irritatingly high pitched warble. Wait… the alarm?

Itaav looked out to the sea and cussed, seeing the reason for the alarm.

He was already running to the nearest Fairy Crystal when above the alarm a voice said, “This is the Crow’s Nest reporting: This is not a drill. The _Sea Naga_ has been spotted off the starboard bow. All Engineers and magically inclined peoples are to report to the nearest Fairy Crystal. I repeat, this is not a drill.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a whole system of notes on how the Pride works that I've unfortunately never gotten around to posting anywhere, mostly because there's a specific image in my head of... EVERYTHING INVOLVED and I'm too lazy to sketch it whoops. Suffice it to say, the system is very caste based. There's a lot I could go over right here, but that would... really take up a long time. I'd rather not, but if you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask and I will answer you to the best of my meager abilities! Some details about the extent of the system are covered in later chapters of the story by my FAVORITE CHARACTER OF THIS STORY, but you won't see him for a while. Nonetheless, it's at times like these as I go over the story that I can reflect on my writing process and how its changed. If I had the system I have now, the events in the story would have unfolded a bit differently, though the core would be the same, I think. To be honest, while the whole thing is plotted in my head, I never plotted chapters individually and... I think it kind of shows, lol. I'm not willing to go back and try and iron things out though, and I think it's fun to see the progress I've made as a writer as we go on. Whatever the case, I've rambled on enough. I will continue to upload these at some sort of a... pace. But I think this will be all for today.


	3. Zelda's Escape

Aboard the _Sea Naga_ , the sole male and king of the ship gazed ahead at _The Pride of the Goddesses_ with a frown. Even though there was still quite a distance between his own ship and Hyrule’s, he could hear their alarms wailing. Not that distance mattered much. The _Naga_ had a much simpler construction that mimicked the original Gerudo Fortress’s inner workings. _The Pride_ was massive, but the _Naga_ was smaller and stream-lined; it was built for speed and not strength, mostly because the _Naga_ had much less to carry than _The Pride_ did in its beginnings. It would get to _The Pride_ within minutes, hopefully before their barriers were at full strength.

“Well, hun, they’ve spotted us.” Said a Gerudo woman next to him, leaning against the rail. She was dressed as the Captain of the ship, one rank lower than the man. “Are we still going as planned?”

“It’s _been_ going, Nabooru.” Ganondorf told her, allowing a slight smile towards his wife before looking back at the other ship. “The other ship is already cloaked and by _The Pride_ ’s port bow.”

Nabooru still kept her eyes focused on the ship before looking up at her husband almost disapprovingly. “Are you sure this’ll actually work, though? Kidnapping seems a bit drastic.”

“It does seem drastic,” he agreed, “But we don’t have much of a choice in the matter.”

The woman shrugged before standing up straight and stretching. “True enough, but only because I can’t think of anything better.” She paused for a moment as a thought crawled into her mind. “What about that other one?”

“Other one? You mean the boy?” Asked Ganon. Upon receiving a nod from his wife he answered, “They don’t know who he is. That’s the only problem with Courage; it can pretty much go anywhere. So for now we can only go for the princess until we know who the keeper of Courage is.”

With a pensive look on her expression, Nabooru put an advocating hand on Ganondorf’s arm, “I don’t like it, hun. We should take care of the kid too, not just the princess.”

He looked at his wife with a stern face. “And what do you recommend we do? Take their ship apart looking for him? We don’t have the time or forces to do that, Nabooru. All we can do now is hope Koume and Kotake can figure out who he is so we can get him later.” He told her.

Nabooru’s frown grew slightly as she looked back to _The Pride_ , now much closer as the _Naga_ began to sidle up to it. He could see where her concern was coming from. The witches were old, even by their own standards, and their magic simply wasn’t up to snuff anymore. It could take them a very long time to locate Courage; time they didn’t have. Finally, she gave a sigh of surrender and unsheathed her curved blade. The concern that had been on her face was now replaced with a fierce grin. “Just the princess it is, then. Get ready to board, hun. And I hope you’re not planning to wear that ridiculous hat on the raid.”

“I’m always ready, and you know you love this hat.” Ganondorf replied, mimicking her grin and tipped the brim of his wide, feather hat to her. He then looked at the rest of his crew. “Prepare to board!”

* * *

 

 “Come this way, princess!” Chancellor Cole chimed over the alarms, waving his small, stubby hand over to the direction Zelda should have been going in the maze that was the Royal Palace – or rather the large mansion-like building that passed for one on _The Pride_. “Over to port now!”

The princess rolled her eyes, wishing terribly that this strange little man wasn’t the one in charge of her security. She followed his direction and began the trek that had been drilled into her ever since she was little in case she needed to make a port exit. Cole scurried on ahead of her to lead the way, his two different sized hats bobbing awkwardly upon his almost too-large cranium.

She didn’t like Cole.

But then again most people didn’t, and it wasn’t just for his strange appearance. He was a foul little man with a superiority complex who was only around because, for some reason, her father liked him.

“Hurry up!” Cole egged on from ahead.

“Perhaps _you_ should be the one in the skirt and uncomfortable shoes!” Zelda hissed from behind.

“Rotten girl…” Cole grumbled as Zelda passed him.

Zelda resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at him. Normally she would have gone through with it, but she felt that doing it may have been stooping down to Cole’s level. Flaunting her status wasn’t something she liked to do, but Cole was the big exception. So rather than respond negatively to his comment, she held herself proudly and smiled. Him calling her a ‘rotten girl’ was a compliment. And now that she was in the lead, she intended to stay in it. Every time Cole attempted to overstep her, she’d quicken her pace. Given the man’s short stature, it wasn’t terribly hard to do. He was just irritatingly persistent.

She managed to stay ahead of him up until they were at the library doors. At that point, Cole seemed to put all his effort into staying in the lead. While it was bothersome, a shock that went through the ship and nearly had her fall on her face reminded her of the situation. She scrambled close behind Cole, who was weaving his way through the bookshelves expertly. He stopped at one shelf against the wall and said in his normal bitter voice, “Well, princess? Help me out here!”

“Oh yes, so-” Zelda held back the sorry, as that was the last thing she wanted to say to the likes of him. She just hurried herself next to Cole at the side of the bookshelf and pushed. Combining both their meager upper body strengths, the shelf moved slowly aside.

“This way!” Shouted an unfamiliar voice.

Both Cole and Zelda paused, listening to unfamiliar footfalls echo through the library.

“B-but… they shouldn’t have gotten here so quickly!” Cole said under his breath in a panic.

“What? Those are the Gerudo?” Whispered Zelda, doing her best to remain calm. Because Cole was right. If the Gerudo had been coming off the starboard side they shouldn’t have been be anywhere near port or even past the outer wall!

“No time, princess,” he said, shoving her through the small gap behind the bookshelf and into the secret passage. “No time! Just hurry and get to the end of the passage!”

“There she is!”

Zelda looked up from Cole to see three armed Gerudo women coming their way. Cole was still forcing her back. “Wait, but what about you?!”

“Never mind that, you wretched girl! Just run!” He snarled as he gave her one final push back.

The princess hadn’t expected the surprising amount of strength in the man’s shove and was sent a foot backwards. By the time she’d registered what had happened, the book shelf slammed back into place. She threw herself at the wall, hoping that maybe it was just an illusion and she could still get Cole and pull him to safety. But it wasn’t. As her hands slapped against the back of the bookshelf, she could feel Cole’s tingling magical presence.

In the instance of a second, too many thoughts raced through her head. She could push it open with her own magic, attempt to rescue him. Heck, he may be dying for her right now… the two didn’t even like each other and he was out there, making sure she was safe! But before she could do anything stupid, she felt a vibration run through the ship again. Logic overcame her. If Cole had just done his job by sacrificing himself for her, so be it. She had to do what he said and run.

So she did. She had to throw off her unbearable shoes to do so, but that was a decision she could live with. Zelda whipped up some witchlight to follow her as she ran into the deeper recesses of the ship, but she felt a stomach ache coming on. She found herself confused and frightened, not knowing what was going on at all.

What were the Gerudo doing within the inner wall? How did they get there without anyone noticing? They’d never even _tried_ to get that far onto _The Pride_ before… And even more than that, why did it seem like they were looking for her?

 _Because they were…_ She thought sickeningly. _But why?_

Zelda paused to wipe the sweat off of her brow, her little ball of witchlight swaying around her carelessly. The ship got much too warm for her tastes the deeper she went in… Come to think of it, had she ever been to the very end of this passage? No, she hadn’t been this far down there. She’d probably never even been through half of it because someone always managed to fetch her before she reached that point. But no one had come for her yet…

Where did this passage lead?

Two more vibrations shook the ship slightly.

No time to think. She had to keep going.

Running was all she seemed to be doing now, and every time she thought the path would end, it would keep going. She still felt sick and unhappy, but she kept going. She tried not to think about what was going on outside. She hadn’t felt any vibrations through the ship. How long had she been down there? Was the raid over?

… Had the Gerudo gotten through? Were they close by, far away?

Her pace quickened, but it was so sudden she slipped. Since Zelda’s feet were sweaty and the passage way was at a downwards incline, she stumbled and crashed down. She gritted her teeth as she pushed herself up. Frustrated, she sat up straight, gesturing for her little ball of light to get closer down before tearing her skirt to a shorter length. That way if she tripped again, the skirt wouldn’t jumble up her feet and she had a chance of catching herself.

 _Maybe I should walk back?_ She thought. She hadn’t heard anything that sounded like footsteps. If someone had followed her, surely she would’ve heard the echoes, right? _No, keep moving forward. No looking back._

Standing up, Zelda continued on at a walk, gripping the torn bits of her skirt tightly.

After what seemed like hours more of walking, she noticed that the passage had gotten brighter. At first she thought it was her imagination, so she dispelled her witchlight, just to make sure. It wasn’t. Feeling a smile make its way onto her face, Zelda began to run again. Had she finally reached the end? She practically threw herself into the room, only to find that if this was the end of the tunnel… it was a bit of let down.

It was just a mid sized, circular room with a Fairy Crystal in it. There were no other passages or doorways. Just a Fairy Crystal.

She frowned. That couldn’t be all, could it? Walking around, she looked for traces of secret doors or gossip stones. And the princess kept looking until she was back at the passage entrance. Nothing. She was about to curse Buckfee Sallas for creating such a backwards safe room when she noticed something that looked like a handle above the passage entrance.

No. Not a passage entrance. A doorway! That was the door.

She contained a squeal of joy and reached for the handle. She didn’t reach. On her tip toes, she tried again only to find that she still couldn’t reach. Finding that she was getting nowhere remarkably fast, she tried jumping. Her fingers managed to brush the handle, which brought a hopeful smile to her. But jumping a second and third time yielded no results, and she found herself cursing her height. Hylians were traditionally tall, but she had to be unique and be _short_. Short enough so that the safe room wasn’t safe for her!

Zelda shrieked in frustration, only to hear a “Did you hear that?”

“Darn it…” she mumbled to herself. Again, she tried jumping and down, reaching desperately for that handle.

“There! I see her!”

And she could see them. The three Gerudo from before… so did this mean Cole was…?

She squealed and ran to the Fairy Crystal. She wasn’t entirely sure what good that would do, but she didn’t have anywhere else to go. Her magic! She could use her magic! The Fairy Crystal could help power a spell or something!

“Princess, come with us.”

She turned on the ball of her foot to see all three Gerudo in the room with her now. The leader of this particular squad had her hand held out to her. “We mean you no harm. Just come with us.”

Zelda put on a fierce face. One hand on the Fairy Crystal, she felt the energy within it. The very life force of a Great Fairy… she could do this; she could make it out of here. “No.” And as she said it, she threw the torn bit of her skirt still in her hand out to them. It accomplished its goal in throwing the Gerudo off of her for just a split second, and she wasted no time seizing that moment. Feeling her own power and the Fairy Crystal’s power swell up within her, she cried, “Farore’s Wind!”

The next thing she knew, she was in the air, falling down. She screamed, reaching out in front of her, trying to find the word’s again. But they weren’t coming out. Her body began to twist in the air; she was looking down. Her lungs burst out with a new set of screams. The good news was that she was above _The Pride of the Goddesses_ ’s Harvest Deck. The bad news was that she was much higher up than she had originally thought! There was no way she could come out of this fall without being gravely injured.

Flailing in the air, her breath finally escaped her. She attempted to brace for a very painful impact and closed her eyes tightly.

She crashed. There was pain surging throughout her body, but she landed on something… well, not soft, but not the deck it seemed. She groaned and opened her eyes. Her lids were weighing down. She saw nothing but blue skies as darkness overcame her.

So she had completely missed that the reason she hadn’t hit the deck was because Link Dollet had done it for her.

Just a minute before she landed, Link had noticed he heard screaming. With the raids having finished a bit ago, everyone was confused. Until he looked up and saw a girl falling from the sky. In the process of going out to catch her, he made a miscalculation on where the girl would fall and ended up being her personal Hylian mattress.

“Good goddesses!” Cried Ralph as he went over to where the girl had fallen on Link.

Tatl added in her own colorful expression in the Fae language before checking on Link. “Link! Link are… well, you’re not all right, but… are you alive?!”

Link, who was just barely awake, merely responded with a sound that seemed to be in between a groan, whimper, and sob.

“The girl looks just bruised…” Ralph mumbled under his breath. But he wasn’t a doctor, he didn’t know whether she was okay or not, and Link was most definitely _not_ okay. His expression turned nasty when he noticed that everyone else aside from Tatl was gawking like an idiot. “Are you all _blind_?! Someone get a healer!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been doing a tiny bit of editing as I upload these chapters. Nothing major, I'm not really scanning everything thoroughly. But this chapter, for example, I wrote Zelda in such a way that didn't match how she acted in later chapters. Small little edits can fix it, just changes in her diction and actions. See, back when I first started writing this, I didn't really outline or go deep into characterization at first. So the characters developed as I wrote them - which is a natural part of the writing process, in this case, it was just more I didn't have the personality "set" before I started writing. Zelda, I always felt, was the biggest offender of noticeably changing in between this chapter and the next. 
> 
> See ya next update~


	4. After the Raid

Itaav hated raids. Most people did, actually. But Engineers, whether they be Above-Deck or Below-Deck, had extra reason to hate raids with a passion: it was _exhausting_. The process of putting barriers big enough to surround just the individual decks of _The Pride_ took an enormous amount of energy and magic to do so, which was why Engineers, and anyone magically inclined, had to be near a Fairy Crystal in order to make the barriers. It was just too much for normal people, Hylian or human, to handle. The Fairy Crystals allowed a boost in their own magic as well as adding Great Fairy magic to the barrier spell. And maintaining all that magic was a team effort that took from _everyone_.

When the signal went for the Engineers to drop the barriers, it was a godsend. While Itaav couldn’t speak for the other Crystal Stations around the ship, everyone around Fairy Crystal Mab was going home - with or without permission.

But while everyone else was heading off to their individual homes and places of residence on the ship, Itaav remained behind by the Fairy Crystal. He was just as exhausted as everyone else, but he had to stick around. Just until…

The wind picked up. He felt himself brighten up considerably as he ran to the rail and his eyes scoured the skies. He could hear the shrill whistle from the even higher decks, warning of storm-like winds; he could hear the royal yards snapping downwards, rendering the sails useless and slowing down _The Pride_ considerably. He could see it! It was a steadily growing dot that had been hiding behind the lowering royal yards!

The Palace of the Winds, flying hundreds of feet above the ship in the course he had predicted. A goofy grin came upon his face as he saw it in all its glory, nearing _The Pride_ , soon to pass over it and continue on its merry way. As it neared, gusts of wind grew stronger, and Itaav’s mind began to wander to the future. He designed the _Helmaroc_ especially for the gusts. A glider that would circle the Palace on the wind gradually until it was close enough to glide to the Palace rather than around it continuously. Not to say that it was solely a glider. He was working on making it a full-fledged flyer – which was taking a good chunk of magical research and tinkering with the basic design of his ship.

As the massive flying castle passed over the ship, Itaav sighed dreamily. Other people were content to just ignore it and went about their lives as usual, but all his attention was on that amazing palace that defied gravity. The propellers and rotors keeping it aloft, flying through the sky without a care in the world… If only the _Helmaroc_ had been finished, he might have been able to go right then and there. But he supposed in the end, it didn’t matter. Because the chart he’d made to track the Palace’s movements were correct. He could track it from anywhere.

It seemed that just as quickly as the Palace had made its appearance, it was headed off into the distance again. It always seemed to come and go too quickly. Itaav closed his eyes and took the time to treasure the wind coming off from it. He loved the wind, but the wind from the Palace was always something special. It felt like…

 _It feels like home._ He thought to himself, satisfied to have found such a right word for it.

The wind had left. The whistling for the royal yards to come up again was heard from above. The ship made a half-hearted lurch at resuming its former speed. With a sigh, Itaav opened his eyes, looking on as the Palace receded further and further away from view. It would be a black dot on the horizon for the next few hours, maybe even until the next day. But after that, it would be out of view. And for some reason, that made the young Engineer sad.

Then a conversation from some fairies caught his attention.

“… heard that she landed right on top of a Scaler.”

“Really? Are they alright?”

“They say the girl is, but that Scaler, some kid called Link, is hurt pretty bad.”

“What?!” Itaav blurted out. Scalers named Link weren’t exactly common. He shot towards the fairies, a blue one and a dark purple one. “A Scaler named Link?”

The fairies looked at each other anxiously for a moment before the blue one bobbed up and down. “Yes. He’s at the Med Bay in the outer wall now.”

* * *

 

Zelda woke up with a groan to an immense headache, but didn’t open her eyes. Were you supposed to feel pain when you were dead? Or rough mattresses and scratchy blankets? That must’ve meant she wasn’t dead then. That and she could hear all sorts of hustling and bustling around her; hustle and bustle you didn’t hear in the inner wall. So she had somehow survived that horrible fall?

She finally opened her eyes and pushed herself up. At first she had thought she was alone, but one of the walls around her moved. Curtains. It certainly explained how she could still hear everything clearly and have privacy. But where was she? What had happened actually? She remembered falling, but before that…

She held a hand against her head, racking her brains to remember. It wasn’t helping her headache any, but she was remembering. There had been a Gerudo raid and she and Cole were heading to the passage at the library. And then Cole had…

Biting her lip, Zelda found herself concerned over the fate of that horrible little man. But was he really so horrible if he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect her?

She buried her face in her hands, all her stress and frustration from before returning. The raid may have been over, but inside her mind it was still going on. Because the Gerudo had been after _her_. Which meant they would keep coming back.

She withheld a gasp at the thought that they may still be on the ship.

One of the curtains opened up before she could dwell on that thought further.

“Zelda!” The voice belonged to a young man a few years older than her. When one took a close look, the two might have even looked similar. The only main difference was that now, this young man looked positively distraught. He quickly took her hands and began looking her over. “Are you alright?! They said you were fine, but I don’t know! These outer wall medics, I don’t trust them! Are you feeling light headed? Nauseous? Goddesses, what happened to your skirt?!”

“I’m fine, Zev! Really I am.” Zelda said, tearing her hands away from her brother’s grasp.

Her older brother’s concerned eyes bored into hers, trying to see if she was telling the truth or not. She wasn’t, because she still had that horrible headache, but he wouldn’t be able to tell. Not only was Zev a terrible liar, he couldn’t tell when someone was lying to him. That and it never seemed to occur to him that she was seventeen and not seven, so he had the unfortunate attribute of believing every single word that came out of his darling little sister’s mouth.

This time was no different. Merely sighing in defeat, he nodded his head. “Sorry, Zel…” He slumped down on the chair by her bedside. “It’s just… so much happened today in such a short amount of time…”

A red flag went up in Zelda’s mind. “Zev… what… what happened?”

Her brother looked at her with pursed lips – something he always did when he didn’t want to tell her something. Suddenly sitting up straight, he abruptly changed the subject. “How did you end up falling from the sky?”

She frowned, but the faster she answered him the faster she could get her own answers. “After Cole threw me into the library passage I made it to the Fairy Crystal chamber,” she avoided interrupting herself to ask why on the Great Sea such a Crystal was even in that place, “I couldn’t reach the door and the Gerudo were coming for me. So I went to the Crystal and used the teleportation spell that Impa taught us. But I wasn’t thinking clearly and ended up warping too high.”

Zev gaped. “You… you can use that spell?”

Puzzled, she asked, “You can’t?”

“Zelda, even _father_ can’t use that spell! That’s amazing!” He exclaimed.

“No, what’s amazing is how I survived the fall!” Zelda added, remembering that fall should have very well killed her. “What happened? Why am I alive? Not that I’m not glad to be alive but… I should be _dead_ , Zev!” 

“You didn’t know? A boy came and caught you at the last minute. Well, caught might be a bit of a stretch but-”

“I _crashed_ into someone?!” She was just getting borderline hysterical now.

Zev stood and waved his hands around, clueless as to what to do to calm his sister down. “Oh no, he’s fine! I mean, he will be! They’re fixing him right now! Fairies are helping and everything, he’ll be just fine!”

She shoved herself off the bed and shuffled right past her brother, who was borderline hysterical himself trying to get his little sister from doing anything drastic. The differences between the inner and outer walls really hit her as she passed the curtains. For a medical bay it was cramped and looked very unsanitary. Many different kinds of people all on cots or rickety beds, like the one she had just been in, with many differing complaints. It was like a rainbow of differing ailments from general nausea to recovering amputees. Looking a little higher she could even see tiny hanging platforms with small glowing lights. Even fairies got sick too, it seemed.

“Zelda!” Zev took her by the shoulder and spun her around so they were face to face. Or rather face to shoulder, what with Zev being so much taller than her. “If you really want to thank him you can do so with a simple letter or something! Interacting with these… people… it’s not right for people like us.”

The princess frowned. She hated her brother’s superiority complex; something he had inherited from their mother. But she was so used to it, she didn’t say anything. After all, right now he was just worried someone would do something terrible to her. She smacked his hand away. “He saved my life and probably very nearly died doing it. Anything less than a personal ‘thank you’ is just plain rude.”

She turned on the ball of her foot to see a great many people now staring at them. Zelda suddenly became very self-conscious, because it was only then she had noticed she was still barefoot and dirty with a significantly shortened and torn dress. She was probably showing a lot more leg than what was considered proper in _any_ circle. Despite the slight embarrassment, she held herself proudly. If she pretended that all was well and nothing was wrong in the slightest, no one would pay attention to her shabby appearance.

“Ah, princess! I’m, I mean, ah – I hope our accommodations were to your liking!” A nearby doctor chimed nervously. He was not at all like the doctors she had seen in the inner wall. Doctors were usually the picture of health there, which gave off a good impression to the inner wall patients. But here on the outer wall… well, he didn’t look healthy. He was awfully skinny and looked old, but the latter may have been not necessarily from age but just from the many things he had _seen_ in his medical bay in the outer wall.

Hiding her surprise, she said, “Oh they’re just fine, sir. It’s just that I had heard there was a young man who saved me, and I’d very much like to thank him. Especially since I crash-landed right into him.”

The doctor looked mildly surprised, but whether it was from her genuinely apologetic tone or her brother behind her, gesturing wildly for the doctor not to do a thing, she didn’t know. But it seemed to be the former, as the doctor ignored the prince behind her. “Of course, princess, but… he’s still in rather critical condition. I’m not sure you’d like to se-”

“I’m a big girl, I can handle it.” Zelda said proudly.

“No you can’t!” Zev cried out, again trying to pull his little sister away.

But the princess just snapped her arm away and smiled at the doctor pleasantly. “Please ignore him.”

The doctor had a very worried look about him, though. As if he wasn’t sure which of the royals to listen to. He didn’t have to do much thinking, however.

Zev took the reigns, not wanting anymore of Zelda’s defiance. He was the older brother, dammit, he knew what was best! “Impa! Take Zelda back home immediately!”

The princess couldn’t do or say anything to stop the Sheikah woman from snatching her up and warping to the Royal Estate. And Sheikah warping wasn’t at all like the “Farore’s Wind” spell she had used before. Impa’s method of warping was, as she understood it, a lot more of a fast and loose variety; and no matter how many times Zev had ordered Impa to warp Zelda away (which was more often than she would’ve cared to admit), the Sheikah warp always left the girl feeling disorientated and uncomfortable. Apparently, having a headache only made those sensations worse.

Zelda staggered a bit upon arrival and Impa took her arm in an attempt to help her balance.

“Princess, are you well?” She asked worriedly.

“Not really…” the princess mumbled as she massaged her forehead with her free arm. She was still swaying a bit, but Impa kept a firm hold on her. “That always feels weird…”

But it only took a few moments for her to find herself again. And when she did, she was very upset. He yanked herself away from Impa and stomped back and forth angrily. Zev had done it again! Just because _he_ was the heir and had a Sheikah entourage around him at all times, he was able to use the Sheikah as he pleased! And to use them for a stupid reason like preventing his sister from interacting with a commoner! He was infuriating! That boy had saved her-

Zelda remembered the raid again. She whipped around on the ball of her foot to face Impa. “Impa, what did Zev mean when he said, ‘so much had happened in so little time’?”

Impa was a Sheikah woman through and through. She was tall with an athletic build, pale hair and red eyed. She almost always had a harsh expression on her. But at that moment, she appeared to be just a tired, middle-aged woman. With a sigh, she said, “The raid had more than just injuries this time, princess. There was a casualty.”

The princess flinched. A casualty? Did that mean…

“Cole died, Your Highness, and we have no idea where the ones responsible are.”

* * *

 

The _Sea Naga_ , lithe, thin, and magnificent, was anchored by a small island. The hull, magically shaded a sandy bronze color, looked golden in the twilight. And as Ganondorf saw his ship on the horizon, he wondered how that hulking mass of metal _The Pride_ could really live up to its name. The _Naga_ may have been smaller, but it was a vision of beauty as well as a speedy battleship. _The Pride_ would never surpass that.

Unfortunately, _The Pride_ was his main focus at the moment. It was the reason why his _Naga_ had anchored by the island. That island was the rendezvous point for the main ship and the smaller schooner he sent to Hryule’s ship. The crew of the main ship had been waiting for a while, which was only natural. The schooner wasn’t as big nor was it built along the lines of the main ship. The speed difference between the main and its attachment was to be expected. It didn’t keep it from being less nerve-wracking.

“I’m sure everything worked out, hun.” Nabooru said as she joined her husband at looking out towards the sea for the schooner. “I chose those girls, myself. I don’t expect anything less than success.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less, either, but we don’t know if one of _his_ agents is on board.”

His wife’s face grew serious. “If one of his agents is on board, we’re already losing.”

The schooner never came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, I'm sorry I forgot I was posting these. Yikes.


End file.
